Proposal keeps teams closer to home

OSAA RECLASSIFICATION: New plan axes teams' trips to coast, Eastern Oregon

By Anthony Roberts

The Clackamas Review, May 19, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

ADVERTISEMENTS

The Oregon State Athletics Association Classification and Districting Committee has changed its plans to send four North Clackamas School out to the coast range and out to eastern Oregon for league games.

After hours of testimony last week, the the OSAA released a reclassification proposal that keeps Gladstone and La Salle in their current Capital Conference and keeps them from traveling to the coast for league games. The committee also scrapped a proposal, for now, that would have sent Milwaukie and Rex Putnam to Pendleton and Hermiston for league games, although the two schools are still slated to play Hood River and The Dalles in a new 5A league. They’ve played in the 6A Three Rivers League since 2006. Oregon City would remain in the TRL, which would add Canby.

“We’re extremely happy,” said Gladstone Athletic Director Jere Applebee, who said the Capital conference had spent the past several months listening to the redistricting committee’s concerns and tweaking its proposal. Most of the current athletic conferences submitted proposals. The current Capital League would stay intact except for Molalla, which has grown into a 5A classification and will likely join a league with Milwaukie and Putnam.

The committee’s previous plans proposed moving La Salle and Gladstone into the Cowapa League, which includes Astoria, Seaside and Tillamook. The Cowapa League also proposed keeping most of their conference intact rather than accepting teams east of the Willamette River. The current configuration now has the Cowapa League with only five teams, which was a previous sticking point, since the OSAA prefers to have at least six teams per league.

The committee also heard extensive testimony on a controversial “alternative” proposal to place Milwaukie and Putnam into a league with Pendleton and Hermiston, something the two eastern Oregon school requested because they feel it’s easier to drive I-84 into Portland than take Highway 97 into central Oregon for league contests.

Pendleton athletic director Dave Williams said he has a schedule proposal that would limit each Portland-area school to six trips east total for every athletic program — albeit, with some Saturday scheduling — and offered a $3,000 subsidy in travel budget to each school, as well.

Putnam and Milwaukie weren’t interested in making the trips, the longest of which would be roughly the distance between Portland and Redding, Calif.

1 | 2 Next Page >>